Racial Justice Imperative
It’s a fact: racism continues to shape lives in the 21st century. It is part of our history as a community and a nation. Understanding racism – its construction, its impact, and our respective roles in dismantling it – engages us to create a different world, one without racism.
When there is racial justice, a person’s racial identity is no longer a reliable predictor of life outcomes. Racial justice means racial disparities in health, education, employment, housing, and criminal justice are eliminated. Eliminating racism and empowering women is the mission of the YWCA.
Our Racial Justice Initiatives
Inside the YWCA, we apply a racial justice lens to all our work.
- Head Start and Early Head Start centers pay attention to how educational inequities can start early in life. Parents and staff members of our centers learn about racial identity formation in children and how racial equity issues affect family employment, housing, health, and other dynamics.
- Educating about and responding to domestic violence and sexual assault, our staff is informed about the impacts of race in healthcare, policing, courts and other systems with which they interact.
Community Racial Justice Initiatives
All programs set up and facilitated from St. Louis and for other YWCAs will experience no charges, however, there might be certain circumstances where fees will apply.
- 21-Day Racial Equity & Social Justice Challenge – This daily challenge in partnership* with St. Louis County Library asks participants to make daily time and space to foster understanding and identify ways to dismantle racism and end discrimination.
- Community Presentations – We promote racial justice and civil rights every place and anytime we can. Interactive presentations, media and other resources will help your group or organization to communicate and work effectively across differences.
- Until Justice Just Is – This signature event of YWCA USA builds community among those who work for racial justice and to raise awareness about the negative impact of institutional and structural racism in our communities.
- Intersectional Liberation – “Peace, justice, freedom, and the dignity for all people” is part of the YWCA mission statement. It is impossible to separate out the effects of racism from the way that other identities (gender, age, class, sexual orientation, religion, ability, to name few) impact our lives. Our identities intersect and so too does our work for equity.